The languages of Spain ( es, lenguas de España), or Spanish languages ( es, lenguas españolas, link=no), are the languages spoken in Spain. Most languages spoken in Spain belong to the Romance language family, of which Spanish is the only language which has official status for the whole country. Various other languages have co-official or recognised status in specific territories, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities.

Present-day languages

In terms of the number of speakers and dominance, the most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish (Castilian), spoken by about 99% of Spaniards as a first or second language. According to a 2019

Pew Research The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the wor ...

survey, the most commonly spoken languages at home other than Spanish were

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...

in 8% of households, Valencian 4%, Galician 3% and Basque in 1% of homes. Distribution of the regional co-official languages in Spain: * Aranese, a variety of Occitan co-official in Catalonia. It is spoken in the Pyrenean comarca of the Aran Valley (''Val d'Aran''), in north-western Catalonia. It is a variety of Gascon, a southwestern dialect of the Occitan language. * Basque, co-official in the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

and northern

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

(see '' Basque-speaking zone''). Basque is the only non-

Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European languages, I ...

(as well as non- Indo-European) with an official status in mainland Spain. *

, co-official in Catalonia and in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

. It is recognised but not official in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

, in the area of '' La Franja''. Outside of Spain, it is the official language of

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none ( Latin)"United virtue is str ...

; it is also spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southernmost France, and in the city of Alghero on the island of Sardinia, where it's co-official with Italian. * Valencian (variety of Catalan), co-official in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous comm ...

. Not all areas of the Valencian Community, however, are historically Valencian-speaking, particularly the western side. It is also spoken without official recognition in the area of Carche, Murcia. * Galician, co-official in

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

and recognised, but not official, in the adjacent western parts of the Principality of Asturias (as Galician-Asturian) and Castile and León. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these languages have legal and co-official status in their respective communities and (except Aranese) are widespread enough to have daily newspapers and significant book publishing and media presence. Catalan and Galician are the main languages used by the respective regional governments and local administrations. A number of citizens in these areas consider their regional language as their primary language and Spanish as secondary. In addition to these, there are a number of seriously endangered and recognised minority languages: * Aragonese, recognised, but not official, in

. * Asturian, recognised, but not official, in

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensi ...

. Part of the Asturleonese language along Leonese and others. * Leonese, recognised, but not official, in Castile and León. Spoken in the provinces of León and

Zamora Zamora may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe Spain * Zamora, Spain, a city in the autonomous community of Castilla y León * Province of Zamora, a province in the autonomous community of Castilla y León * Associated with the city and ...

. Part of the Asturleonese language along Asturian and others. Spanish itself also has distinct dialects. For example, the

Andalusian Andalusia is a region in Spain. Andalusian may also refer to: Animals *Andalusian chicken, a type of chicken *Andalusian donkey, breed of donkey *Andalusian hemipode, a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds *Andalusian horse, a breed of ho ...

or Canarian dialects, each with their own subvarieties, some of them being partially closer to the Spanish of the Americas, which they heavily influenced to varying degrees, depending on the region or period and according to different and non-homogeneous migrating or colonisation processes. Despite being a dialect, some Andalusian speakers have attempted to promote Andalusian as a different language independent of Spanish. Five very localised dialects are of difficult filiation: Fala (a variety mostly ascribed to the Galician-Portuguese group locally spoken in an area of the province of Cáceres sometimes called ''Valley of Jálama/Xálima'', which includes the towns of San Martín de Trevejo, Eljas and Valverde del Fresno); Cantabrian and Extremaduran, two Astur-Leonese dialects also regarded as Spanish dialects; Eonavian, a dialect between Asturian and Galician, closer to the latter according to several linguists; and

Benasquese {{Infobox language , name = Benasquese , nativename = ''benasqués, patués'' , pronunciation = , states = Aragon, Spain , region = Ribagorza, Campo, Estadilla, Graus , speakers = 1,000–2,000 , date=no date , re ...

, a Ribagorçan dialect that was formerly classified as Catalan, later as Aragonese, and which is now often regarded as a transitional language of its own. Asturian and Leonese are closely related to the local

Mirandese The Mirandese language ( mwl, mirandés, links=no or ''lhéngua mirandesa''; pt, mirandês or ) is an Astur-Leonese language or language variety that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal in Terra de Miranda (made up of th ...

which is spoken on an adjacent territory but over the border into

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. Mirandese is recognised and has some local official status. Portuguese has been traditionally spoken by the inhabitants of the following border areas: Cedillo and Herrera de Alcántara (province of Cáceres), La Alamedilla (province of Salamanca, primarily spoken in the place up until the mid-20th century), and Olivenza (province of Badajoz). With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a language isolate, all of the languages present in mainland Spain are

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...

, specifically

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...

. Afro-Asiatic languages, such as

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

(including Ceuta Darija) or Berber (mainly Riffian), are spoken by the Muslim population of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territo ...

and Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco) elsewhere.

Past languages

In addition to the languages which continue to be spoken in Spain to the present day, other languages which have been spoken within what are now the borders of Spain include: Linguistic map Southwestern Europe

* Tartessian language * Iberian language *

Celtic languages The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...

** Celtiberian language ** Gallaecian language * Lusitanian language *

Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal ...

Latin language Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of ...

* Guanche language * Galician-Portuguese *

Gothic language Gothic is an extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although ...

* Vandalic language * Frankish language *

** Andalusi Arabic ** Classical Arabic ** Judeo-Arabic * Mozarabic languages *

Romani language Romani (; also Romany, Romanes , Roma; rom, rromani ćhib, links=no) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to '' Ethnologue'', seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their ...

Languages that are now chiefly spoken outside Spain but which have roots in Spain are: *

Judeo-Catalan Judaeo-Catalan ( he, קטלאנית יהודית; ca, judeocatalà, ), also called Catalanic or Qatalanit ( he, קאטאלנית; ca, catalànic or '), was a presumed Jewish language spoken by the Jews in Northern Catalonia and what is today ...

, though the existence of this language has been questioned. * Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino)

Variants

There are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins: * Barallete * Bron * Caló * Cheli *

Erromintxela Erromintxela () is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called ''Basque Caló'' or ''Errumantxela'' Matras, Y. ''A Linguistic Introduction'' Cambridge ...

* Fala dos arxinas * Gacería * Germanía *

Xíriga Xíriga is an occupation-related cant on Asturian developed by the ''tejeros'' of Llanes and Ribadesella in Asturias. The ''tejeros'' were migrant workers in brick or clay, usually poor, who contracted themselves out for work sometimes in distan ...

Further information

* Aragonese (''aragonés'') * Astur-Leonese ** Asturian (''asturianu, bable'') ** Leonese (''llionés'') **

(''mirandés, lhéngua mirandesa'') ** Extremaduran (''estremeñu'') ** Cantabrian (''cántabru, montañés'') * Basque (''euskara'') *

(''català''), known as Valencian (''valencià'') in the

* Galician (''galego'') ** Eonavian (eonaviego) ** Fala (xalimego) * Gascon ( Occitan dialect) ** Aranese (''aranés'') * Spanish (''español'') ** Judaeo-Spanish (''djudeo-espanyol'', ''judezmo'', ''ladino'', ''sefardi'', etc.) **Dialects of Spanish in Spain *** Andalusian Spanish (see also Andalusian language movement) *** Canarian Spanish ***

Extremaduran Spanish Extremaduran may refer to: *Something related to Extremadura, an autonomous community in western Spain, including: :* The Extremaduran language, a language spoken in Northwestern areas of Extremadura :* Castúo, The Extremaduran dialect of Spanish, ...

(''castúo'') *** Murcian Spanish *

Sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

s ** Spanish Sign Language (''lengua de signos española'', LSE). **

Catalan Sign Language Catalan Sign Language ( ca, Llengua de signes catalana, LSC; ) is a sign language used by around 18,000 people in different areas of Spain including Barcelona and Catalonia. As of 2012, the Catalan Federation for the Deaf estimates 25,000 LSC ...

(''llengua de signes catalana'', LSC) and

Valencian Sign Language Valencian Sign Language ( ca-valencia, Llengua de signes valenciana ), or LSV,Also abbreviated as LSCV (for ''Llengua de signes de la Comunitat Valenciana'') and LSPV (for ''Llengua de signes del País Valencià'') is a sign language used by deaf ...

(''llengua de signes valenciana'', LSV). *

Language politics in Francoist Spain During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975, policies were implemented in an attempt to increase the dominance of the Spanish language, also known as Castilian, over the other languages of Spain. Franco's regime had Spanish n ...

References

External links